An Invalid Consensus
by Faith Connors
Summary: Legion is a machine, he can't be anything more. Can he? Tali isn't quite sure what to think. One/Shot. No Slash.


**So I read up on several Mass Effect stories, and I figure there needs to be more Legion, but with friendship, not slash. What is with you people? xD**

**I love Legion because he's a super computer, not like EDI, but an actual computer like robot. That makes him a complete badass and he deserves a story of his own.**

**Before I forget: I don't own Mass Effect!**

* * *

Shepard was walking out of the lift, her boots resounding off the metal flooring. She was just coming down from her Cabin to get some food from the kitchenette in the Mess Hall, when Kelly turned and spoke to her.

"Commander, you have unread messages at your private terminal." She said with her trademark smile, and a look that Sirantha knew was more than friendly. Kelly turned back to her work after Siri raised an eyebrow and a grin.

Sirantha liked Kelly, she was probably one of the few Cerberus personnel she actually liked, or trusted for that matter, then again, she had bedded Kelly at a few points due to a great need for sex, at times. Kelly was always happy to continue their 'Friends-with-benefits' relationship they had. Regardless, Kelly was just one of those people you could just feel secure with. There was also Jacob, and he was friendly enough, followed her quite loyally. And he preferred Siri over Cerberus ever since she helped him with his father; the disgusting bastard. Not even Jacob felt any sympathy for the ageing ex-officer as the Alliance officials picked him up to cart him straight to a maximum security prison.

She actually trusted the master thief: Kasumi, more than she trusted Miranda, on that matter of trust. Sure, Miranda was also pretty friendly, good in a fight, and very tactical; _but_ she was still a bit of a bitch. Great arse though. Miranda had been a lot nicer since Siri helped her out with her sister's problems. But again, she wasn't certain of how far she could trust her, and that's what she liked about Kasumi; the Japanese thief kept to herself most of the time, but you could rely on her to have your back no matter what.

Plus; she was funny. Miranda had _fuck all_ for a sense of humour.

And then her thoughts buzzed about and went to the Geth they had aboard. Legion was certainly a peculiar individual, even though technically he _wasn't_ an individual. But she didn't think she'd ever understand him, not fully anyway. She trusted him though, he had even proved it time and time again that he could be trusted, he'd saved her in that fire-fight a week back or so as well; Vorcha pirates were raiding ships in the Gamma Hades sector, and the Normandy intervened to stop them, however upon landing, one Vorcha with a flame-thrower wanted to make Shepard an extra crispy side-dish. Legion had pushed her out the way as the flames jettisoned themselves around the area, licking at everything in sight. She been saved and shot the Vorcha right between his eyes, and Legion had come though mostly unharmed, a few scorch marks, but his shields had protected his chassis and wiring.

He was a reliable one. She actually figured she'd pay him a visit. First though, she checked that mail.

* * *

The A.I core was dark and depressing, as per usual. Bathed in a sickly red light. As the door closed behind Sirantha, the Geth that was sitting on the bed, looked up. Its eye lens turning, and the plates on its head shifting slightly, focusing in on her. His gaze stayed on her for what seemed minutes: It made Shepard uncomfortable at times. Until finally he spoke.

"Shepard-Commander." Said Legion in way of greeting.

"Hello Legion. Just came to check up on you, see how you're doing."

"We are performing more than adequately " Legion replied with his plates risen, as if to convey his confusion. "We apologise if we have given Shepard-Commander a reason to believe we are not functioning to the best of our ability."

"No, no, I know." She smiled, Legion was weird. "Just wanting to know if you're okay."

"Running diagnostics, one moment please. Data complied. This mobile platform is running at appropriately 98.91% optimal capacity. Of all 1,183 programs within this platform, all are processing and running without error. No errors have occurred in 129 days." Legion paused. "Does this answer Shepard-Commander's query?"

"Yeah, guess it does." She laughed and shook her head, exiting the core with a smile still playing on her lips.

She guess that was Legions way of saying; "Yeah, I'm alright, Shepard."

* * *

Humming to herself as contentedly as the Drive Core hummed away at itself, the blue glow of it emitted over Tali with a cool air. Right now, it was what passed for night-time on the Normandy, and Tali felt used to it by now, able to sleep somewhat. As she looked into the blue haze that was the core, she wondered; if she ever went back to the Flotilla, would she sleep with all the noise? It had been that noise meant her and her ships safety. But that had obviously changed. Even with the core giving out little noise, and her new development in sleeping, she found that she could not close her eyes and dream at this moment in time.

She turned, and only succeeded in taking two steps before yelping, crashing into none other than Legion. It was instinct that she reached for the heavy-pistol at her hip, yanking it out the holster as fast as her hands would allow, aiming it directly at Legions face. It was common sense, however, that made her lower the weapon and not cause him harm: At this distance, a bullet from her hand cannon might rip through his shields with quite a lot of ease.

"Legion, you surprised me." Tali gasped, her three-digited hand on her chest, "It's not often you venture out of the A.I core. I almost shot you... sorry about that, I guess."

"Our apologies, Creator-Tali'Zorah, we did not mean to startle. You are not usually operating at this time. We are grateful that you did not discharge your weapon; a close proximity shot would render our shield useless, and cause damage to this mobile platform, possibly irrevocable."

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep, and... I am sorry I almost shot you." Tali sighed, carefully placing the heavy-pistol back into its holster. "So, what are you doing here, Legion?" She asked, not unkindly.

"We come here sometimes to build consensus." Legion stated, his lens scanning around. "This area proves far more adequate for concentration. Of all 1,183 programs running on this platform, 912 agree to this, 271 do not."

"I see. Well, you're welcome to do so, then. I was going to go and eat something."

"We understand. Your organic shell requires nutrients to operate at the height of its optimal capacity."

"Yeah. Well... goodbye." Tali said, somewhat uncomfortably. It still wasn't right in her mind; that Geth _weren't_ all bad. What Shepard had said had made perfect sense. And she knew it, but she hated it. Her fists clenched, Legion did not notice her change in demeanor. The _Quarians_ were responsible for the loss of_ their_ home-world: Rannoch. They_ should_ have treated the Geth fairly.

She pondered on the Geth as she made her way away from Engineering, up to the Mess Hall.

She didn't necessarily dislike Legion, but she didn't like him either. It was a big dilemma on her part, and she simply couldn't decide. He had even saved her life when she and Shepard were out on an uncharted world they were exploring. Saved her from being ripped apart by Varren. He'd suffered damage to his wiring and eye lens, because there were so many attacking, leaping on, and overwhelming him. Sirantha had been fending off several as well, and Tali herself been too worried over a small slit in her suit. She'd felt guilty over it, even if it was Legion. Afterwards she'd mumbled a quiet apology and he'd dismissed it with:

"You need not feel upset Creator-Tali'Zorah. With your organic shell being so fragile, as you are Quarian, that even with Varren attacking us instead of you, you stood a higher chance of expiration that us. We understood your need to tend to yourself."

It brought a smile to her lips, funnily enough. He had no emotion, so he went by logical choice, seeing what she did as the most logical one, as opposed to getting angry at her and being annoyed that she did not help him. She hadn't a clue why it made her smile, but she did believe that deep down, it was because a part of her wanted to like him.

If it wasn't the case, she'd _certainly_ of shot him down a long time ago, if not for Shepard, as well.

Her thoughts were swimming as she grabbed a couple of things from their compartments in the Mess, so she didn't notice the shadow behind her. She didn't notice it grabbing an object from the Mess table, and she didn't notice it creeping up behind her with said object in hand. All she noticed was the voice sounded in her ear.

"Hi. Tali."

"KEELAH!" Screamed the scared Quarian in a panicked jump, the food she had been holding, was now scattered all over the place. "Kasumi! How many times have I told you to _stop doing that!?_"

"Sorry." Kasumi giggled, not sounding very sorry, taking the object and crunching down on it, taking a bite. The object was an apple. "Couldn't resist."

"Hey, I was going to have that." Tali whined.

"Oh."

"It's also a Turian apple."

"_Oh!_"

You can guess that next Kasumi was spitting out the piece she'd bitten off, and rinsing out her mouth. "Ech. I guess I should of known; you can't eat human apples." She looked at the 'apple' in her hand, now realising that it was a different shape, as well as a different colour, blue-ish, inside and out. Not like an Earth apple at all. Well, except for when they went mouldy, maybe.

How the _fuck_ had she missed that?

"Well, this was certainly a downer on my evening." Kasumi frowned, placing the 'apple' back on the table. Slinking around toward Tali with a small grin placed on her lips. She took steps until she was directly in front of the timid Quarian. Kasumi just so happened to be taller than Tali, and Tali had felt slightly intimidated by Kasumi's smile, so she had slightly shrunk down.

"W-why are you so close?" Tali stammered.

Kasumi's grin went full Cheshire, from ear to ear, now. Tali would now appear visibly worried, if not for the mask.

"No reason!" Kasumi suddenly exclaimed with a laugh, gliding back off to the shadows, most likely returning to her place in the observation deck. Tali shook her head in bewilderment and found herself grinning in surprise.

That girl was _so very_ weird. She continued to smile, and grabbed a nice little Turian 'banana', which did not have any resemblance to a human banana whatsoever. It was longer than a banana, as well as being soft and almost bumpy. Unlike normal bananas; it did not need peeling, and was a mixed colour of purple and orange. She grabbed both fruits and placed them both in a small little machine Shepard had brought for her, which had one simple use: To create paste for Quarians.

This machine was also a 'healthier' option. It sterilised whatever went in it and conserved the nutrients in the food. As well as not being packed with any kind of preservative, so this was good paste, better than the paste she got in packets at your local alien retailer.

After about a minute in the machine, (She was only supposed to leave it for around 10 seconds, but she liked to make it extra runny so it was much easier to 'eat'), she poured the purée into a cup and looked around for her special feeding tube to attach to the front of her mask.

"Oh, why must you hide, and where did you go you little _Hrarxa_?"

She couldn't see it anywhere, and it was seriously annoying. She spent a good 20 minutes looking on the floor, over the worktop, on the table, around and under her machine, back on the worktop again. She wanted to eat! She wanted to-

_Bump!_

Geth thing.

"KEELAH! SHIT!" Tali screamed, yet again. Now swearing in English, surprising herself for saying the word, considering it was one of the words she didn't know, but had heard Shepard and the rest of the crew use it plenty of times. Now Legion was creeping up on her too?! This was rather frustrating. "Legion! Why did you sneak up on me?"

"Our apologies, Creator Tali-Zorah. We did not mean to startle."

She fumed silently. That line again. "Even so, you shouldn't be sneaking around."

"We were not 'sneaking around'. We were curious as to what Creator-Tali'Zorah was doin-." Legion then paused. And suddenly turned to walk away.

Tali was perplexed for a few seconds as he trudged off, but then rushed forwards and grabbed him by the shoulder as a idea popped into her mind about why he was attempting to take his leave. Turning him around, looking directly into the unblinking lens of the peculiar Geth, she searched his plates for any signs of 'confusion' or 'worry'. Legion said once that he and other Geth 'had soul', but having a soul meant having emotions. And Legion couldn't possibly have emotion, it was illogical, and Tali was certain he saw it that way too. But he contradicted that when he said Geth had souls.

"What was that, Legion? You were... 'curious'?"

Legion did not answer. Minutes passed in the silence and glow of the overheard lighting. Tali sighed, took her arms off him, and crossed them, awaiting an answer, which Legion must of understood and taken for annoyance. He shifted around, obviously uncomfortable. Glancing around as if to look for an answer to give, focusing in and out on random objects as if they would come to life and explain the situation.

"Data... unavailable...". He stretched out.

"Oh no you don't, what did you say?" Tali asked again, hands on her hips.

"We said... we were curious as to what...". He trailed off again, looking down at the tiled flooring of the Normandy. Again, staying silent for a while, not speaking. His lens focused in, and out again. "Data-banks show 'Curiosity' present in terminology. Curiosity: A quality and/or emotion related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning... Building consensus, one moment please."

Tali sighed in agitation. Shifting her stance so her weight was on the other foot, arms going back to being crossed. She waited, for well over half an hour, tapping her un-weighted foot impatiently. Eventually Legion looked up, the light from his lens brightened, as if he were coming out of a sleeping state.

"Creator-Tali'Zorah, we believe we have a critical systems error." Legion stated, almost sounding worried, even in his monotone voice. "1,182 programs see no other logical explanation otherwise, possibly a corrupt coding in our main hard-drive, or lethal virus in our software. We simply cannot be 'Curious'. It is a system fault."

"Wait, wait, wait. You have 1,183 programs don't you?" Tali asked, she was certain of it. He'd mentioned the number enough and she did tend to have a good memory. "What program is the one in disagreement?" And although she asked, she did have a feeling she knew.

No answer.

The plates on his head whirred in confusion, the humming of his chassis the only sound being head for a while.

"It is..." Again, he paused. And then started again. "It is..."

He couldn't finish what he was saying, she knew it was 'him', that last program. But he couldn't refer to himself as an individual, or could he? This was intriguing. So very, very intriguing. She may not like Geth, but this was a very new discovery.

"Go on..." Tali motioned. Placing her arms on his shoulder-pieces. "It _is_...?"

Time may as well of been on standstill for the amount Legion took with coming to a reply.

"It is... what..." Legion drew out. "Everyone would... refer to... as..."

"_Yes?!_" Tali said, almost happy for the Geth. And she hadn't the slightest clue as to why she was happy for him. A single Geth with individual thought was dumb, but Legion, he was over a thousand Geth, and yet, his_ program_, as it were, was almost an individual Geth with emotion. It was crazy, but she was pleased for him. She was more happy about the possible evolution of it, but still, for him as well.

Nothing. Legion stopped. And the light on his lens dimmed again. He moved out of Tali's grasp and turned, walking away at a sluggishly depressing pace. Saying 'Incorrect' and 'Error' as he went. It was likely that the quiet whirring that sounded from him was him possibly running diagnostics on himself. It simply _didn't fit_, and his system saw it as a glitch that needed fixing. No exceptions.

Tali was always the first to deny Geth had any form of intelligent response in terms of feeling or emotion. Then again, she found herself wondering if it could be possible for... well... robots to maybe, develop? Evolve? Maybe when Geth built a collective hive-mind they adapted and overcame the vice that was 'no emotion'? She had no clue.

* * *

Tali found him down in Jacks hidey-hole.

Jack wasn't a happy bunny.

"We need to build consensus." Legion stated towards a pulsing blue Jack, not threatened by her show of biotics. As Tali stepped into the red underbelly of the area, she felt claustrophobic all of a sudden. Ironic, considering her suit situation.

Nevertheless, she took steps towards the two, and Legion spoke as she got closer.

"Jacqueline-Biotic." Legion stated, his eye focused intensely on her face, "We must build consensus."

"No. Fuck you. Leave." She snarled, each word dripping pure venom. "Robot. Fucking. Leave. _You._" She said in a scrambled order, quite on purpose, but Legion understood. "If you don't leave, I will take you the _fuck_ apart, scrap you, and build a fucking coffee machine out of what I don't destroy. _Got it?_"

"Jack..." Tali eased out, raising her hand non-threateningly, taking very small steps forward towards the enraged woman.

"You; Quarian Bitch." Jack hissed toward her, head sharply turning at her. "Get this fucking robot out. _Now._ This is _my_ space. And the only person other than myself allowed down here; is Shepard. Because I _allow her to come here_. Now: Get him. _Out!_"

"Y-yes, I was g-going to." Tali stammered, quickly rushing forwards to grab Legions arm. "Come on, Legion." She grunted, pulling him with all her might. Thankfully he must of decided that this wasn't the best of places to build consensus after all as he moved with her without incident. They both retreated up to the Drive Core without Jack turning them into paste, although the heat of her anger was following them all the way up the steps. A crunch and a few curses came from down below after they were way. What had Jack in such a bad mood today?

Tali brought Legion around and stopped him before the rail. Looking at him with intent in her eyes.

"Legion." She stated boldly, drawing his attention. "You've built consensus already, you know it's _not_ an error or a virus, and_ you_ are the program that doesn't quite agree with the others. So tell me; what's going through _your_ mind?"

He stared back into her mask.

"Our mind?"

"_Your_ mind."

"Our mind." He said again without skipping a beat. "_Our_ mind, Creator-Tali'Zorah."

"_No._ You're different." Tali argued. "Look into the program that doesn't agree with the others. What do _you_ see?"

He stopped focusing on her. And obeyed the order after a few seconds.

"Scanning program..." Legion announced to her. "No viruses detected."

"Yes, exactly." Tali smiled, Legions face turning away from hers. "It's not a virus, it's you. That program is _your identity_. Don't you understand that? Tell me, what do you see?"

"We... understand. We... do not comprehend."

"Don't comprehend what?" Tali wondered.

"The meaning." He said, turning to face her directly.

"It means that you... _have soul_." Tali whispered. She could hardly believe she said it.

Now that stopped Legion in his tracks. His system looked as if it were shaking. And again, he looked away. When he looked back after a while, however, he'd stopped shaking, and he almost looked happy; the plates on his head had shifted in such a way.

"Creator-Tali'Zorah." He stated.

"Yes, Legion?"

No words more, he simply pulled her into a hug. And Tali was very taken aback, but she embraced him anyway. Hugging back she heard the silent hum of his mechanical body, resting her head on his shoulder. He was gentle for a robot, she thought he'd of squeezed her too hard or something, by now.

"_I thank-you._"

* * *

**D'aww, fluff. I love it so. And yes, this was very cheesy and probably made little sense; sue me.**

**Used a Quarian word as a joke, explained below.**

**Hrarxa: Term used to describe anything that affects a clan negatively. Literal translation: Insult to my clans honor. Insulting a clans honor is considered an insult to every clan member. In ancient times it was enough to cause a war. That straw needs to learn a lesson.**


End file.
